iOS 5 won’t reinvent the wheel, but it does address a host of concerns and future-proofs Apple’s mobile devices, especially the iPad. Although Nintendo’s Wii U stole the show at this year’s E3, that same day, Apple unveiled AirPlay Mirroring, a new feature that basically does the same thing as the Wii U’s controller– only you won’t have to wait until 2012 for it. And now you can see it in action.

The fine folks at Apple’N’Apps got a hold of a developer release of iOS 5, as well as some apps that take advantage of the wireless mirroring to your TV, and the results are simply phenomenal.

The biggest concern with AirPlay Mirroring is that of latency. Right now, you can connect (with a special attachment) your iPad 2 to a TV via an HDMI cable, and thus mirror the screen on a larger TV. iOS 5 allows you to unplug the cable, accomplishing the same thing over your local Wi-Fi network. Traditionally, you would encounter a great deal of latency because of this. The Wii U, for instance, connects the controller screen to the console via a proprietary wireless connection that eliminates any latency.

However, the above video demonstrates that while AirPlay Mirroring doesn’t boast 1:1 accuracy, it’s pretty darn close. This will be incredibly important for gaming, which is currently the largest segment of the App Store. In the video, you’ll see several games played (Angry Birds Rio, Real Racing 2, and War Pinball, among others), and the lag is present but appears to be negligible.

Not only can you sync up with the same image, but with AirPlay Mirroring, you can even display different images on your iPad 2 and TV. As this feature becomes available to the public this fall, and developers start utilizing it, we’ll undoubtedly see some exciting new uses for the technology.

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